Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

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Introduction

Oh happy home! Oh blessed flower! is perhaps one of the best of the English songs. The text by Edward Maitland (later translated by Charles Ligny when the song was published by Lemoine as La fleur du foyer) is hardly distinguished, but the music, a mixture of recitative and aria, is a happy compromise between French mélodie and English ballad. The piano prelude is the longest in all the Gounod songs and the change from the E minor of loneliness to the E major of family fulfilment is affecting. Gounod later orchestrated this work.

Details

I found a flower pining on the heights, and sang: Oh flower, wasting in the wild! Oh flower, stricken by the storm! Come to my home, be tended by my care! For I have love in store, and yet am lonely there! No longer drooping in the noon! No longer shrinking in the night! Forsake the wild where joy is none for thee! Forsake the wilderness and come, be glad with me! Come! Come!

And after happy years had passed, I sang again: Oh, happy home! Oh, blessed flower! And happy buds that bloom around! And shade of leaves inlaid with breaks of sun! And store of love that grows with all the years that run! Oh, happy home! Oh, blessed flower! And happy buds that bloom around! And store of love that grows with all the years that run! Oh, happy home! Oh, blessed flower! And happy buds that bloom around!